A former emergency medical technician from Staten Island is in hot water for taking a photo of a strangled murder victim in March and posting it on his Facebook page, multiple sources told the Advance.

Mark Musarella, 46, a retired police officer who up until recently worked as an EMT for Richmond University Medical Center, took a photo of 26-year-old Caroline Wimmer after he responded to the scene of her murder on March 30, according to sources familiar with the incident. Ms. Wimmer was found strangled to death with a hair dryer cord inside her Greenleaf Avenue home in West Brighton.

Jennifer Sammartino, a spokeswoman for the West Brighton hospital, wouldn't comment on the incident, except to say that "Mr. Musarella is no longer employed here."

As sources tell it, one of Musarella's friends on the social networking site spotted the photo and contacted hospital officials, who promptly fired him and informed the NYPD.

One source with access to Musarella's private Facebook account said the photo is no longer posted on the site, but he had put up an image of a car crash he may have responded to.

Musarella, who goes by the nickname "Moose," was described by sources who have worked with him as bombastic.

"He's a little off the wall... a raw sense of humor," one source said.

Musarella used to be a detective assigned to the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit, but sources said he retired a few years ago.

He made headlines for a number of rescue operations during his time with the police department -- in 2005, he used a Hurst tool while off duty to save a man from a burning car; in 1999, he helped save a mother and daughter who had fallen off a capsized boat during a flood; and in 1996, he grabbed a homeless man who had threatened to jump off a pier and helped rescue a fleeing suspect who had jumped into the bay near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

No one answered the door at his Woehrle Avenue home in Annadale this afternoon, and a phone message seeking comment went unanswered today.

Ms. Wimmer's family declined to comment when contacted this evening.

William J. Smith, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan, said his office wasn't aware of the alleged photo, but added that it likely wouldn't affect the prosecution of the man charged with Ms. Wimmer's murder.